As my round-number-birthday fast approaching, we wanted to do something really special in Indonesia, in a pristine and not as popular as Bali destination. We found out about a little island just 45 minute flight from Jakarta - Belitung. It was a perfect weekend getaway. Apart from renting a scooter, taking long walks on beautiful beaches and enjoying great seafood in small towns, we decided to go island hopping. Our hotel ( Santika Premiere Beach Resort) organised as a boat for 500 000 IDR for a whole day. That was the price for the whole boat, no matter if you are hopping alone or with a big group of friends. We met our Captain at the beach of Tanjung Tinggi and were already excited seeing our beautiful, of many shades of blue, wooden boat. The boat seemed a bit old-fashioned, but along with the captain, showed a lot of heart and courage in the waves of Java Sea.
We had nothing planned, the whole schedule of the adventure depended on our captain. After 30 minutes, we approached the first “island” Batu Belayar (if you can even call as little as place like this) with white sand, huge rocks and a lone fisherman with a bucket full of small turtles. The turtles are there to be saved (for a price of 25 000 IDR (1.75$)) as local fishermen rescue them from horrific fate being turn to a soup on the other islands.
After couple of snaps and turtle-rescuing, we hopped on our boat and sailed to Lengkuas Island with a picturesque lighthouse among palm trees and little bars. We took a sunbath, a swing and a refreshing coconut to prepare us for some sea world visiting. Our captain took us to the other side of Lengkuas, to take a dip and admire marvelous sea life and fragile but spectacular coral reef.
After that, the captain ordered some lunch - he took us to Kepayang island, where a handful of tourist and locals catch a break and delicious seafood under the palm trees. For two coconuts, typical Asian rice, best satay, huge plate of shrimps we paid not even 25$. And I forgot to mention the best dessert - bananas in pancake dough, and sweet coconut sugar tea (for free!) With full bellies, we did go for another dive in to the crystal clear sea and then for a cave walk in Kelayang island, where we had more coconuts and more bananas.
The whole trip took us 9 hours, it was fabulously exhausting and one of the best days in my life. I would like to mark that during that day, we gathered a lot of plastic trash from the beaches and from the sea. It was just a drop from what is out there, but remember that every step counts and with picking up one plastic bag you may save some creature’s life.